Sewerage District Problems Are Suspicious

Jones Island Reclamation Facility. Photo by Urban Milwaukee staff.

There is a stink arising from the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD), and it’s not the smell of sewage.

The advocacy group Common Ground is working with more than two dozen anonymous whistleblowers who allege that the sewerage district’s private contractor, the French company Veolia, is purposely running wastewater systems below capacity during rain events, increasing the risk of sewer overflows into Lake Michigan and backups into basements of area homeowners, and forgoing maintenance to save money, instead allowing equipment to run to a point of failure and be replaced by MMSD.

These were serious accusations by former employees of MMSD, led by Steve Jacquart, a longtime city employee and then MMSD manager of intergovernmental relations, who is seen as a straight shooter and former fan of the sewerage district.

On the other hand, MMSD’s executive director, Kevin Shafer, is highly regarded by officials in town for the job he has done. But Shafer, in this case, has reacted by trying to kill the messenger.

For starters, the MMSD Commission, which oversees the sewerage district, released a statement dumping on Jacquart. It was written by commission chair Corey Zetts, though insiders believe she worked with Shafer on the statement. It complained that Jacquart “knows how to get in touch with me if he seriously believed MMSD infrastructure and our waters and community were at risk throughout the past decade. Working with Common Ground to release this information today feels suspect.”

Next, MMSD hired Emily Gnam, an attorney with Lake Effect HR & Law, to investigate the claims from Common Ground and the whistleblowers they are working with. In a letter to Common Ground, she said she would not disclose their names to MMSD but would collect their names and employment history.

Which felt like an effort to intimidate the whistleblowers. “We do not believe this proposal is a good faith effort to discover and report the full truth to the MMSD Commissioner and the public,” wrote Bob Connolly, founder of Common Ground, in a response to Gnam. “You are on management’s side; on your LinkedIn page, you describe yourself as an expert in ‘management-side employment law.’ You also lack technical expertise in wastewater management.”

So Shafer and MMSD backed off from using that law firm but continued to resist Common Ground’s call for an audit. The district released a statement saying it is “two years into a public procurement effort to hire a company to operate and maintain the District’s infrastructure for a 10-year period,” which is “a time-consuming effort” and “must continue to be a fair process.” Therefore, “MMSD cannot publicly comment on these accusations until after the procurement process is completed.”

But only Veolia and one other company, Jacob’s Solutions, based in Dallas, are being considered for the job of running the district’s operation. How can you decide whether to rehire Veolia for another 10 years unless you pursue the allegations about how it has been operating the system?

This response seems all the more suspect given the roster of people pushing to rehire Veolia. They include Ghassan Korban, the former head of Milwaukee’s Department of Public Works, a longtime city insider who was hired as a vice-president of Veolia last year. The company also hired former alderman and Common Council president Ashanti Hamilton as a manager and hired former alderman Michael D’Amato to lobby for the contract.

The situation drew the attention of the Milwaukee County Board, with nine members calling for the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau to do an audit of Veolia’s work for the MMSD. “Concerns this severe and systemic require a more robust, third-party audit of Veolia’s management of Milwaukee’s wastewater plants,” their statement declared.

That was Monday and in response MMSD finally agreed to an audit, with Zetts releasing a statement later that day saying the MMSD commission will “initiate an independent, third-party performance audit” that will be “overseen by the MMSD Commission.”

Zetts also apologized for her attack on Jacquart, saying, “I apologize for maybe reacting a little emotionally to a friend coming forward with those allegations, rather than to the commission. But now that we have seen those details, we have initiated steps to begin an independent, third-party performance audit that will be overseen by the commission.”

Aldermen Robert Bauman and Common Council President José G. Pérez both emphasized that the audit cannot be controlled by MMSD, meaning the agency run by Shafer, and that the commission must be in charge. But it doesn’t exactly sound like it will operate independently. Zetts and Shafer seem to have been working together on the responses to Common Ground and she has also checked with him on the audit.

As Urban Milwaukee reported, “Zetts told the committee she has discussed the audit” with Shafer and that “there are firms that work in wastewater who could conduct an audit, and the executive director has the budget authority within his office to execute a contract.”

Meanwhile, Zetts insisted the audit must be completed by September, though the current contract with Veolia doesn’t end until Feb. 28, 2028. That’s almost two years from now. Why the rush? Bauman asked.

That’s to give the next operator time to take over and implement everything included in the extensive contract, Zetts explained. But after MMSD’s repeated attempts to resist the audit, it seems like another attempt to limit any potential findings.

Not so, says Jeff Fleming, a spokesperson for Mayor Cavalier Johnson. “They want to get it done in a timely manner,” he told Urban Milwaukee. “MMSD has an interest in getting good and accurate information from Veolia.”

The mayor appoints seven of the 11 members of the MMSD commission and has a lot of power on this issue, but clearly supports both Shafer and the MMSD. “I don’t think they are against an audit,” Fleming says.

Meanwhile, Fleming portrays Common Ground as a publicity-seeking group that “sets itself for a certain goal. Their goal is to not have Veolia get the contract.”

But it is not Common Ground making the accusations against Veolia, but former employees of MMSD.

Common Ground’s prior campaign, to improve the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee, uncovered all kinds of problems reported in detail by Urban Milwaukee. But to Fleming, “their only goal was to get rid of Willie Hines, Jr.,” the Housing Authority’s leader, who eventually resigned.

That’s a disturbing view of Common Ground’s work and doesn’t bode well for how seriously the mayor views the potential problems with Veolia’s management of the sewerage district. And the issue doesn’t just affect Milwaukee, but the 28 surrounding suburbs that are served by MMSD. Relations are harmonious these days among the members of MMSD, but that might just turn sour if a full-fledged and truly independent audit isn’t done.